Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Komeda Breakfast and Toyota Museum

 

The official first morning in Nagoya! I was gonna visit Toyota Museum. It was within walking distance from where I stayed, so I walked there, choosing to go through the residential areas instead of the main road. I felt strangely at home in my surroundings. Above is the site of the Toyota Museum. It was still early, so I went for breakfast first. 

There was a Komeda Coffee nearby, and it was high on my retro cafe to visit. I don't even know why! Day 2 in Nagoya and I've already visited 2 out of my 3 retro cafe!

I went in, not really know what to expect. You know how you walk into a restaurant and expect it to behave the same as the restaurant at home? Ya. I forgot I was in a different country. Do I order at the counter? Is there a machine? Do I sit down first? It wasn't crowded, and a lady waitress shouted welcome and said I can sit anywhere, in Japanese! I sat at the solo tables facing the wall, and when she came to serve me my ice water, I told her what I wanted, in Japanese! So far so good! I wonder if the fatigue would wear in soon. It usually wear in after a week or so, and I would switch to English and play tourist again. I was going to be here for two weeks, and my goal was to use my Japanese as much as possible. 

I ordered the Ogura Toast set. They have a light version without the egg and yogurt. I love that they have their own glass, their own towel, and their own coffee cups! This was call the Morning Set, and it was a thing in Nagoya. It basically meant that during morning hours, you can purchase a cup of coffee, and they serve you breakfast for free. The coffee was like 500Y though. Still, it was supposed to be super value for money.....hahahahaha

Ah.... I got pretty addicted to coffee in Japan. At home, I would normally drink my coffee black, using a single drip coffee, to make about 300ml of coffee, which I would drink it as two cups. So it was kinda diluted. Here, each cup was concentrated black coffee, thick and smooth. It was so freaking high for me! Wait till I get to my last hotel where they serve free coffee at the lobby! Hahahaha. I practically drink it once or twice a day!

After breakfast, I took a short walk to the museum. Above is the bus stop to alight if you are taking the bus. Who needs a bus? I got legs! I can walk everywhere! And boy did I walk everywhere in Nagoya!

The front gate of the museum. Why was I here again? I don't even drive or own a car! Well, it's because Toyota Museum is the most famous museum in Nagoya, and also because I have a history of working in Daimler, and I've visited the Mercedes Truck office in Brazil when I was working there. I wanted to see how a different car company museum would be life. You know, compare notes!

Inside the museum ground area, I saw there was also a research institute housed here. Cool! I felt like I was in a modern research center! The museum inside actually consist of two area, and I will write two parts for them individually cause they were surprisingly interesting to me! This post is just a summary. 

One of the cool things to see at the museum, was actually the robot musician! A whole band! Or more elegantly, a whole orchestra! Sadly, the above robots was on maintenance and did not perform at all on that day. Still, they looked so cool!

The violinist  robot however, did performed at fixed interval. And he was quite a hit with the visitor! I managed to catch a performance in between the two segment of the museum :)

Here's me and the violinist! Encore! Encore! Bravo!

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Noritake Museum

This post is just about the Noritake Museum, simply because it has so many beautiful things inside that I just wanted a separate collection of it here.

A bit about Noritake History. Please click on the photo or zoom in to read if interested. 

I think this is the first time I'm visiting a ceramic museum? Look at all those beautiful tea cups!!! I love English tea cups. Actually I love any tea cups, mainly cause I love tea :) And this display was heaven to me!

Here is a zoom in version. Look at the detail of some these tea cups! Beautiful!

There was also a wall of patterns drawn on paper. These are how they design the ceramic, by first drawing them on paper first

A zoom in version of the design. All hand drawn!

From here onwards are just some of the pieces that I find interesting and love. Above is actually a breakfast set! It consist of half boil egg holder and toast holder. Isn't it lovely? Imagine having your breakfast served with this! How elegant!

Minty green tea cup and kettle! Got to have that in my collection! The kettle is so tall that I imagine it holds black coffee instead. Oh what lovely contrast of colours that would be. I very rarely use my tea cup for coffee cause I hate staining them. Even tea stains the fine china. And I hate washing them off cause I always imagine I'm slowly chirping the ceramic away, making them thinner.... 

A Greek inspired tea pot. Hercules! Hercules!

And I love these collections from here onwards. They are so chic! So French! Imagine having cakes or macarons in these elegant plates!

These are all so beautiful. I don't even recall seeing such pretty plates in France. 

A very note worthy collection!

The colour combination was just stunning.

I was pretty happy here just looking at all these beautiful art pieces :)

There is something just so timeless, so elegant in these pieces. I'm glad I visited this place.

It was a start of many unknown discovery for me in Nagoya. I've lined up daily activities for myself, but not really knowing what to expect in each of them. Yet every one of them managed to blew me away. I've never dreamt of visiting Nagoya before. It wasn't high on my radar. The only reason I was here was because I've already visited the other cities that SQ flies to. And I wanted something safe, like a city I can explore :)  Nagoya was a good decision after all !

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Noritake Garden

 

After lunch, I took almost a 20minutes walk to look for Noritake Garden. Noritake is apparently famous for porcelain ware and ceramic, and bone china. I have never heard about it before until I was researching up things to do in Nagoya. It was one of the places highly recommended. And since I love ceramic, I decided to come here on my first day. I knew there was a combination ticket that comes with Noritake and Toyota Museum. I wanted to know if I can use the tickets to visit two attraction in two different days so that I can spend more time in each.  Walking into Noritake Garden was something. It was in the middle of summer in Nagoya, yet I felt like I was in the cold chilled air of an English garden. Doesn't the photo above looked just picturesque? 

The garden was also filled with red brick warehouses, as it did housed the old ceramic factory long time ago. The red brick building just adds to the atmosphere of an old English scene. Noritake Garden is actually made up of a few buildings. And yes, I did get my combination ticket which I can use for two days :) It was my first day speaking Japanese, and I kinda fumble, but I managed to get my question understood, so good enough! 

With the ticket, I first visited the workshop where they show you, with live artist, how they make their ceramic. No photos was allowed, but it was quite interesting. There was a station where you can feel ceramic, porcelain and fine bone china. I think that was the first time I could tell them apart! Upstairs of the workshop, there was also a DIY area where you can pain your own plate and take it home, but sadly nothing conducted in English after I asked :(  The tickets also allowed me to visit the museum, and photograph was allowed there. I will do a separate post on that cause it has the most beautiful collections of ceramic ware there! Just love it!

There was also a Welcome Center which wasn't very interesting, and a separate building where they house the Lifestyle Store and Cafe. Inside the Lifestyle Store, they have ceramic for sale. And some were heavily discounted too! I did ponder whether to buy some, but it was still my first day in Nagoya, and I have a few hotels to move around in! So I ponder against it. 

I did took some of the cute photos of the character ware there. Just in case I wanted to come back here again to purchase some souvenirs. Above is the Doraemon collection. I was looking for something more Japanese in nature, instead of the usual English Tea Cups.

I actually spend quite a long time inside the shop, just struggling with myself. Like these Totoro bowls. I could afford them. But I was just too lazy to carry them home with me. So fragile too! But yes, I do love them. I think if I lived in Japan, my house would just be filled with so many cool kitchenware!

After walking out from all the displayed area, I headed to the other side of the garden, again, passed the beautiful red brick warehouses and their beautifully black doors. What a sight. 

I found the old kiln of the original Noritake Factory. They are no longer in used, as they now use a modern oven of sort inside the new workshop building. But it was still impressive to see the actual thing. I like it that they have the year it was in operation in red bricks on the ground too.

Here is some information on it. You can zoom into the photo for more details. There are actually 6 kilns in the area. And they are all overgrown with green plants :)

Here is a row of them in the garden on the right. On the left is a wall filled with stone and ceramic plates! There are also open fields where kids can run around in. Pretty cool place, except that it was so freaking hot! The weather was around 35 degress in summer. 

Connected to the garden was also an Aeon Mall. I went inside for some browsing and shopping and bought my dinner there before headed home after the visit. At that time, I totally forgot about the iconic Tsutaya Bookstore that can be found here. I only remember it the next day, and luckily it was nearby the Toyota Museum, so I went back again to visit the bookstore! More on that in future post.

The view while I was walking back the opposite direction back to the gate headed to Nagoya Station. 

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Nagoya 1st Day Lunch, Dinner and Hotel

After visiting Flight of Dreams, I headed to the train station to figure out how to get to town. Luckily everything was well marked. 

Finally found the train I wanted. No need 1st class for me. It's still early in the morning, I'm pretty sure I'll get seats. I got two Suica card with me, and since there was no top up machine at the station (you can top up at the FamilyMart), I use a vending machine to check the values on my cards. After that, I paid cash for my train ticket. Interestingly, there are topup machine once you enter the platform area...... Onwards to Nagoya!

Reached Nagoya in less than an hour, and oh my god, I hate Nagoya Station! I got so lost in there cause everything is just marked as Nagoya Station, whether it's JR, subway or their local trains. I was pretty lost inside for the first few days! One of the worst station I've ever encountered in all my trips in Japan! I actually went to drop my luggage at my hotel first, but can't check in till 2pm. I told them I will be back around 3pm or so. It was a Chinese own hotel/hostel. I was able to get away with speaking mandarin :)

I made my way to my first retro restaurant for lunch. It was a Friday, and I wanted to try their set lunch. It was today or never, cause the other days I would probably too busy with other activities to be able to make it for their set lunch, which was only available on weekdays. Above, the giant tall statue was one of the attraction of Nagoya Station.

Finally found the cafe, about 15mins walk from the train station. It was called Leon (so french!), and the sign was next to one of my favourite steak house in Japan! Ikinari Steak. I always buy their sauce when I see, it so that I can cook my steak at home and be reminded of the shop. The very first time I had it was actually at Hokkaido....

I really didn't feel like speaking Japanese on my first day, maybe cause I haven't had enough sleep, and my brain was slightly foggy. So I took a photo of what I wanted to eat, and went into the shop to show it to the waiter. Easy enough!

It was a super retro restaurant/cafe. So retro that smoking was actually allowed in here. Actually, a lot of pubs, cafe etc in Japan allows smoking. But I really wanted to eat here, so I didn't mind. Some solo diners, and a few tables of SalaryMan on their lunch break was also dining here. It wasn't that crowded. I even had a table all to myself. I felt a bit guilty since I was alone. Perhaps I should have taken the solo seats instead? How unthoughtful of me! But again, lack of sleep syndrome. Couldn't function as elegant as I wish I could!

I ordered the Red Miso Katsu Set Lunch. Nagoya is famous for their red miso katsu. I felt fortunate to be able to have this on my very first day. For 8.50sgd or so, it was within my budget, and a lovely meal. I love the rice in Japan. They filled me up just nice. The only problem was, it was rather salty as I found myself thirsty throughout the day. 

After lunch, I actually went to visit Noritake Garden, but I will post that separately. After the visit, I finally made myself back to the hotel, probably around 5pm or so.

My hotel was just behind the train station, but maybe 10 to 15 minutes walk away, and hidden in a side alley. It was actually at the second storey of a shop house, and I had trouble finding it. Mainly, it was scary to know which door to walk into cause I wasn't really sure. But once I found it, it was ok after that. It was a quiet alley, so it didn't felt like I was in a tourist place.

Here's what my single room looked like. I really like the window that lets in so much natural light.

Here's a different view. I didn't use the TV, but I did use the fridge. I love that I can blast the aircon cause it was summer. The walls were thin and I could hear phone conversation from next day that one night someone was staying there. There was no toilet attached. I had to go outside to the shared toilet at the end of the corridor. But it was relatively clean, and I didn't really bumped into any guest while I was staying there. It was rather cheap, perhaps 25sgd a night? It was called Choukou Hotel. And I have booked to stay there just 2 days cause I wasn't sure if I would like it there. 

While on the way back from Noritake Garden, I had stopped by an Aeon supermarket and tabao-ed my dinner back. I got the energy drink for free, a promotional give away outside Nagoya Station. I saw people just walking up to get a free drink, so I followed suit and got myself a weird tasting caffeine powered drink! Tasted more like medicine than anything! Lol. I didn't get any fresh sushi cause Noritake Garden was like a 20minutes walk from Nagoya Station, and add on 10 minutes to get to the hotel, in the summer heat! No thanks! No food poisoning for me thank you. I've just landed!